. >> america wonders why it is that in this town, for some reason, you cannot get stuff done in an organized time table, where everything has to wait till the last minute. we are now of the last minute. in the american people are not going to have any patients for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy. >> the president said he was modestly optimistic that the january 1 deadline for the fiscal cliff could be averted, but that is contingent on a vote in the senate on a compromise bill, and that will have to get an up or down vote. there is a majority for that, with some tax increases for upper-income people. the question is what level would be acceptable to republicans. more crucial to that is, whatever the senate proposes and passes on to the house, will it be acceptable to the majority of republicans in the house, who control that body? if it is not, we may be having another confrontation, and go past the january 1 deadline, and we could see those tax increases go into effect. again, there is the fallback position. if the pressure on the republicans is great enough, they may have